Thinking Green

The Face In The Mirror

by Dick Rothschild


What lies behind that innocent face greeting you in the bathroom mirror every morning? A not so innocent human being who is responsible for emitting over a thousand pounds of Carbon Dioxide a year. Multiply that by all the faces gazing in the mirror each morning and you have a staggering statistic – far too large – if we are going to reduce pollution and dependence on foreign oil and mitigate climate change.

Hold on now – I am not about to propose that you turn down your thermostat this winter to the point at which icicles form on your nose or that you purchase an all-electric car which can’t even get you to Provincetown and back on a fully charged battery.

What I have in mind are two painless ways you can cut your CO2 count by as much as 20%.
1. The first is to stop receiving catalogs. Ridding yourself of 10 unwanted catalogs can eliminate 154 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, more than 15% of the 1000 pounds the average person accounts for.
Here’s how. From your browser, go to Catalog Choice, http://www.catalogchoice.org.
This free service enables you to stop receiving those catalogs, phone books, coupons and solicitations you don’t want. On the site you sign up for an account. Then having torn off the backs of the catalogs you no longer want to receive, you type in the mailing information printed on each and Catalog Choice will do the rest. Soon you will start to notice that you are receiving fewer catalogs. While the service is not perfect (because a few companies are slow to respond or ignore opt-out requests) it works surprisingly well. Over 1,200,000 people are already using Catalog Choice which, in turn, is in contact with over 3,000 catalog producing companies.

2. The second idea is to go on a paper diet. Before you make a paper copy of something on your computer, ask yourself, “Do I really need to print this?” You’ll find that in most cases saving it in a file on your computer will suffice. As for those documents of which you really need hard copies, consider printing them on both sides of the paper. That will reduce your copy paper consumption by nearly 50%. Here is how.

Printing Second Page on Back Side of Paper
1. Open a two-page file in Microsoft Word, Excel etc.
2. Click on the Office Button (round symbol in the upper left hand corner of the menu bar).
3. On the screen which appears, click on PRINT.
4. In the print window click on CURRENT PAGE.
5. At the bottom of the screen click on OK.
6. When the first printed page emerges from the printer place it back in the printer with the printed side up and the words facing you.
7. Click on the round symbol in upper left hand corner of menu bar.
8. On the screen which appears, click on PRINT.
9. In the print window click on PAGES and then in the window next to it type the number 2.
10. At the bottom of the screen, click on OK.

Printing Multiple Pages on Both Sides of Paper
1. Open a multiple page file in Microsoft Word, Excel etc.
2. Click on the Office Button in the upper left hand corner of menu bar.
3. On the screen which appears click on PRINT.
4. In the print window click on ALL and below it click on ODD PAGES.
5. At the bottom of the screen, click on OK.
6. When the odd pages emerge from the printer place them back in the printer in 1-3-5 etc. order, printed side up with and the words facing you.
7. Click on the round symbol in upper left hand corner of menu bar.
8. On the screen which appears click on PRINT.
9. In the print window click on ALL and below it on EVEN PAGES.
10. At the bottom of the screen, click on OK.


Now that you have mastered printing on both sides of the paper you can go back to reading your favorite newspaper, The Times, the Globe, the Clipper or the Patriot Ledger – hopefully the paperless online edition.

10/10/10

Sustainable Duxbury Plants Trees at Tarkiln Center

Last Friday, October 8, the members of Sustainable Duxbury took part in the 350.org Global Work Day by helping the department of public works plant four linden and maple trees that Sustainable Duxbury donated to the Tarkiln Community center. These trees will be a welcome addition to the farmers market held at the center and will provide shade while taking carbon out of the air for years to come. By taking part in this global work day Sustainable Duxbury joined over 7,000 other work parties being held in 188 countries around the globe where people are rolling up their sleeves and putting their money and efforts into fighting global warming. The 10/10/10 Global Work Day gave millions of people the opportunity to say to politicians “we are getting to work to stop global warming how about you”. Planting trees is one small way we can work to bring atmospheric carbon back down to 350 parts per million (ppm). This is the number agreed upon at last year’s global summit in Copenhagen as the upper limit at which mankind can preserve a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed, and to which life on earth has adapted. Today that number is 290 ppm and climbing. For more information please visit www.350.org or www.sustainableduxbury.org

Minutes from October 6, 2010

ATTENDING: Jim Savicki, Janis Owens, Mike Gillis, Judi Vose, Anne Baird, George Baird, Dick Rothschild, Carol Langford, Makae McClintock, Mike Wilson, and Susan Fontaine.

Topics Discussed:

1. 10/10/10 Event at Tarkiln Community Center — Janis Owens:

Friday 10/8/10 at 8 AM Sustainable Duxbury will present 4 trees (2 Maples and 2 Lindens for $1,200) to the town as one of the over 600 Green Work Parties sponsored by 350.org in over 180 countries. The trees are to be planted at the Tarkiln Community Center. Members of Sustainable Duxbury are invited to attend the presentation and following photo-op. Janis O. and Jim S. will bring Sustainable Duxbury and 350.org information pamphlets and banners.

Janis Owens is researching a plaque to commemorate our gift. We discussed type of plaque and what it should say. The possibilities are bronze/brass or stone. Please send suggestions about material and wording to Jim S. and Janis O.

2. Annual MCAN Conference, Worcester, Sunday 10/24 – Jim S.

We agreed to pay for four members to attend MCAN. Jim S., Janis O., and Susan F. plan to attend. Anyone else interested please contact Jim S. or Janis O.

3. Bottled Water in Schools, progress report – Jim S

Jim S. met with the new Superintendent of Schools to give him a “Dux Water” water bottle and to discuss our proposal to replace bottled water from a vending machine at the High School with a device (paid for by us) that would enable students to fill their own water bottles. If our proposal is implemented, then we would ensure metal water bottles are available for students to purchase from either us or a school group (e.g. sports team). The money from the vending machine does not fund any school group as far as we know.

Jim S. passed out information on a possible device, the Hydration Station. It is expensive ($2,000), and uses a silver filter that costs $42 and must be replaced every 6-9 months. For information see http://www.hawsco.com/hydration-station. We believe that a filter is necessary to meet flavor and health needs of the students and their parents.

4. Sustainable Duxbury blog, Janis Owens

Janis gave a demo of how to use our new blog. The easiest way to read the blog is to go to our home web page (search for “sustainable duxbury” in your browser or use the name http://sustainableduxbury.org) and click on the link to the blog which is near the top. The next easiest way is to type the name of the blog (www.sustainableduxbury.blogspot.com) into the url text area near the top of your browser window. Anyone who has a google account can post comments about blog entries. To open a google account, go to www.google.com, click on register for new account, and follow the instructions. (Google does not send unrequested email so don’t worry about extra email.)

Jim S. and Janis O. are using the blog to post meeting minutes, articles written by members, information about events, and other environmental news.

5. 501C3 – George Baird

We agree that is a good idea for us to file for 501C3 status so that donations will be tax deductible and purchases will be tax free, and that it is better for us to file independently of Sustainable South Shore. George got a quote from a lawyer for ~$2,000 to file the paperwork for us. Jim S., Dick R., and George B. will see if we can file the paperwork ourselves or get a lawyer to file for us pro bono. Once we are a 501C3 we will need to file an annual report.

6. Quarterly meeting of SSSh, 10/26, 7 PM, First Parish Church, Norwell – Jim S.

Jim S. is the new Vice President of SSSh (congratulations Jim) and will be attending the meeting.

10/10/10 Event

We have our time and date for the tree planting at Tarkiln:

This Friday, October 8, at 8:00 AM.

Please join all of us for some planting! Four trees will be going in this Friday. This event is to join others around the world (183 countries at last count) in the 350.org event: 10/10/10.

To quote 350.org:

With your help, 10/10/10 is going to be the biggest day of practical action to cut carbon that the world has ever seen.

We're calling it "A Day to Celebrate Climate Solutions"--together we'll get to work in our communities on projects that can cut carbon and build the clean energy future.

But we won't stop there--we'll be using the day to pressure our leaders to Get To Work themselves by passing strong climate policies promoting clean energy and reducing emissions.

Thousands of people around the world have already registered their plans, including bike repair workshoppers in San Francisco, school insulating teams in London, waste-land-to-veggies-gardeners in New Zealand, and solar panel installers in Kenya.

Well, Duxbury is planting trees so come and be part of this historic event.

10/10/10

We are joining 350.org in their 10/10/10 Global Work Party event. We are going to be donating and planting 4 trees at the newly renovated Takiln Community Center on Summer Street. Our exact date and time for this event are still being decided. The 350.org event is on 10/10, and they have events all over the world. We are going to be coordinating with the Town who has offered to help us with the planting. We will be updating this information as soon as we have it.

For information on 350.org and the other events taking place that day go to their website and check it out. As they say: On that day, all over the world, people will be working for the environment. On 10/10/10, we will celebrate climate solutions and send our politicians a clear message: "We're getting to work—what about you?"

Bill McKibben and a few others begain this group just a few years ago. Here is some information on who 350.org is:

350.org is an international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilize a global climate movement united by a common call to action. By spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. 350.org is an independent and not-for-profit project.

What is 350? 350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in "parts per million" (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a "people powered movement" that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

Please stay tuned and join us in planting some trees to help our environment.

Minutes from Meeting of September 1, 2010

Members in attendance: Jim Savicki, Janis Owens, Judi Vose, Dick Rothschild, Marion Thayer, Len and Nancy Nowak.

1. Treasurer’s Report. Marion Thayer reported that we have received a check form Foodies as part of their “Help a Local Organization" program.
Here is how it works. When you spend over $100 at one time, at check out, you can write Sustainable Duxbury on your receipt, and place it in the box located at the customer service counter. We will get 5% of any amount over $100. It’s that easy!
Keep that in mind and tell your friends that they can help us out while they shop.

2. Oceana. Recently Janis and Jim attended a meeting in Woods Hole held by the local representative of Oceana (www.oceana.org). They are working to end expansion of offshore drilling in the US. We were urged to take part in this campaign and to call Mass senators weekly and voice our opinions about offshore drilling. There is also a petition campaign that one can take part in. There will be another meeting later in the fall. Check out their site for more info. We will be doing a blog about our meeting soon.

3. 10/10/10. The members present decided that as part of this “Global Work Day” (organized by 350.org), we will be helping The Tarkiln project by obtaining, and planting, shrubbery or trees on the Tarkiln site. More information to come on this.

4. Anti Plastic Campaign. Jim S. plans to meet with the new superintendant of schools and present him with his reusable “ Dux Water” bottle and at the same time pursue the Idea of removing bottled water from the schools.
Janis O. showed a great youtube video on plastic bag use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw and is heading a team that is going to talk to local merchants about plastic bag use in Duxbury. If interested, contact her at Janisowens@mac.com and get on board.

5. Sus Dux is heading the “Green Team” once again at this year’s Island Creek Oyster Festival and there is still time to get free admission to the festival by signing up for a three hr shift helping the Green Team. If you have expressed an interest you MUST sign up by going to www.islandcreekfoundation.org/festival/volunteer and registering as a volunteer to get your free admission. If you do not register on line you will need to pay at the door.

Minutes from Meeting of August 4, 2010

SUSTAINABLE DUXBURY
SUMMARY OF MEETING
August 4, 2010

ATTENDING: Jim Savicki, Janis Owens, Beth Hudacko, Holly Groelle, and Susan Fontaine.

Topics Discussed:

1. Alternative Engergy Committee meeting, 6/20, Jim Savicki:
AEC hosted an exciting talk by Kevin Schulte of Sustainable Energy Development, a company that sells and installs wind turbines. He thinks the MET tower is an unnecessary step in Duxbury and that by skipping it the wind turbine could be supplying electricity much sooner.

2. Sustainable Duxbury blog, Janis Owens:
Janis has set up a blog for Sustainable Duxbury. You can find it at sustainableduxbury.blogspot.com check it out and post a comment!

3. Edible Wild Plant Walk by John Root, Saturday, 7/24:
The Wild Plant Walk, which we helped publicize, was a success with more than 40 people of all ages attending. Check out his website: http://www.johnroot.net. There is some great information about what plants can be eaten from the wild, the wild that surrounds us every day.

4. Types of grass doing well this summer, Holly, Jim, Beth:
It was suggested that we gather data on which grass varieties do well in this summer’s harsh conditions. The data could be useful for decreasing lawn watering. Has anyone seen results of using the “Pearls Premium” seed that you purchased last year?? Or other types that you can suggest?

5. Island Creek Festival Saturday, 9/11, 3-11 pm, Jim Savicki:
The Green Team, being managed by Jim S., Judi V , and Mike W., needs 50 volunteers. Volunteers get free entry into the festival (worth $50) and High School volunteers get community credit for donating 3 hours of time. Volunteers will also be needed 9/12 for next day clean-up. Go to the Island Creek web site to register as a volunteer by Aug 15th and be eligible for great prizes!! http://www.islandcreekfoundation.org/festival/volunteer

6. Plastic Bottle and Bags won the vote for the next Sustainable Duxbury project, Jim Savicki:
Eighteen people voted. Plastic bottles and bags got 15 votes, anti-idling 9, and town composting and promoting biking tied with 7. We briefly discussed how to eliminate bottled water sales at the High School. Jim will find out if the proceeds from the bottled water vending machine support any High School programs. We discussed alternatives to bottled water such as a spigot with enough clearance to fill water bottles or something more sophisticated that would provide filtered and/or chilled water. We briefly discussed the possibility of sponsoring a community pledge to not use plastic bottles or bags.

7. Disposal of items that are not currently covered by recycling, Holly Groelle:
Holly presented her strong concerns about the lack of an environmentally responsible way to dispose of certain highly polluting trash, such as medicines, batteries, and light bulbs. Jim S. will find out if the transfer station has special battery disposal. Holly is working with a group in Boston on the issue of medication disposal as there appears to be no non-polluting method currently available.

8. The 350 .org people ( who sponsored Hands Across the Sand ) are planning a “Global Work Day” for 10/10/10. We will be deciding in September if we want to be part of this event by doing something locally to have a direct effect (albeit small) on climate change. Check out the 350.org site and let us know your thoughts anytime.

9. Next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, September 1. Have a great August !!

Where do the Blue Bags Go?

Last May a few of us from Duxbury visited the SEMASS facility to see what happens to our trash that is thrown out in the blue bags. Dick Rothschild reported on this visit and here is his report.

Thinking Green

Trash Talk

Does the headline sound as though this column is about the Sacramento hardcore band Trash Talk or maybe the recent verbal donnybrook between Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford and Joe Madden and Ump Davidson at a Red Sox game? It’s not. But, read on. You are about to become the first in your neighborhood able to hold forth on where all the blue trash bags go, and what happens to them after they are dropped into the pit at the Duxbury Recycling Center.
Twice weekly Duxbury’s DPW (Department of Public Works) delivers a truckload of
our blue bagged MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) to a huge facility in West Wareham, Massachusetts known as SEMASS.

Here, believe it or not, a million tons of trash a year, including ours, is used as fuel to generate electricity. In the process our dependency on fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions and need for more landfills is reduced.

The Rube Goldberg-like Schematic Process Diagram below may help you visualize the process which goes like this:
The trash (MSW) which arrives by truck and railroad freight car is dumped on the floor of the Tipping Hall where it is bulldozed onto a conveyor and fed into a shredder. The shredder chops it into 4 x 4 inch chunks and dumps them onto a second conveyor. At the top of this conveyor a magnetic device removes all the ferrous metals which are then shunted via another conveyor to trucks to be sold and recycled. You would think there is not much iron or steel in trash, but the SEMASS facility recovers over 50,000 tons a year.





The chopped up trash (with iron and steel removed) is conveyed to one of three boilers. These are big babies housed in a building almost nine stories high. Burning trash chunks as fuel, these boilers produce steam, which turns steam turbines, which turn generators to produce electricity.
SEMASS generates 590,000 megawatts of electricity from the million tons of trash it processes yearly, enough to satisfy the electricity needs of all the households in Duxbury plus many in Kingston.
A byproduct is made by introducing water and lime into the boiler exhaust just before it enters the air pollution control equipment. The combination comes out as the major component of sheetrock. Another byproduct is fly ash, sometimes used in concrete. A scrubber removes most of the airborne pollutants, making the exhaust from SEMASS cleaner than that from either a coal or oil fueled electric generating plant.
While 51 towns use the SEMASS facility, it is neither municipally nor state owned. Along with 33 other EfW facilities and 6 biomass facilities in the U.S. SEMASS is operated by Covanta Energy Corporation, a Subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation.
Covanta has negotiated long term contracts with the towns which use SEMASS. Duxbury pays Covanta $98.50 a ton to dispose of its trash. Covanta sells the electricity produced from trash to NStar at 5¢ per kW. And, it sells recyclable recovered materials and byproducts at market prices.
As I write this I can almost see some of you environmentally responsible investors rushing to computers or phones to buy some Covanta Holding Corporation stock (NYSE: CVA) Without wanting to take wind out of your sails, I should point out that in spite of making and selling products from raw materials which they are paid to accept, this business, to date, has been less than a bonanza for stockholders. Total return over the past 5 fiscal years has been a measly 1.6%. With CVA stock selling recently at $15.43 a share and 2009 earnings of 66 cents a share the stock has a lofty P/E ratio of 25.2. The environmental dividends are worthwhile, to be sure, but, alas, no cash dividends are paid.
On the other hand, Charles Schwab forecasts a 10% annual growth rate for Covanta over the next 5 years, better than many other environmentally responsible enterprises.
As far as stock picking goes, though, you are on your own. As William Feather puts it, “One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells and both of them think they are astute.”

Hands Across the Sand

This past Saturday, June 26, Sustainable Duxbury joined over 900 events around the globe to join hands and form a human line in the sand to say NO to offshore drilling and YES to clean energy. There were events like ours in 37 countries and all 50 states. We were joined with people from all over the area, from other towns such as Sharon, East Bridgewater, and Marshfield. We even had a bike rider join in from the MS bike marathon that was going on in town. He took time from his charity marathon to add his hands and voice to another good cause, the life of the ocean. He was from the North Shore so could not join his local event so he found one near where his bike ride was so he could join in. We had entire families joining hands with us. It was a wonderful and powerful moment to look at the line of people along the edge of the water, standing for clean beaches, clean environment, clean energy.


107 people signed the petition that is being sent to Sierra Club in California. It is a petition to President Obama and states: "Today I joined hands with citizens across the country and around the world. Together, we call on you to say no to offshore drilling, yes to a clean energy future, and get our country off our addiction to oil."

Hands Across the Sand was originally organized by Dave Rauschkolb who is a surfer and restaurant owner from Seaside, Florida. He stated this group back in October, 2009 when the Florida legislature was taking up a bill to lift the ban on offshore drilling off the coast of Florida, well before this disaster in the Gulf. On February 13, 2010, they had 80 beaches sign on for events all over Florida that involved over 10,000 people. The bill has been put on hold. When the BP disaster occured, Dave went global with his event. Partners that have joined in this movement include 350.org, Sierra Club, Audubon, Alaska Wilderness League, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and so many more. Visit handsacrossthesand.org for a listing of more of the groups that supported this event.
We have uploaded photos from our event to the Hands flickr group and you can find this at www.flickr.com/groups/joinhands. There are also many videos from events around the world at youtube. Go to www.youtube.com/user/handsacrossthesand.

To loosely quote the words of Dave Rauschkolb, the disaster in the Gulf is a wake up call. Even as the disaster keeps unfolding and continuing, BP and other oil companies continue to push for new offshore drilling anywhere oil can be found. Offshore oil drilling is a dirty, dangerous business and no one industry should be able to place entire coastal economies and marine environments at risk. We should be a leader in expanding cleaner energy sources yet we still cling to fossil fuels due to the overwhelming influence of oil money.

I am currently reading a book entitled Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit by Tom Rand. This is an man who believes that we can and need to switch to greener technologies and we have those technologies right now. This could be a whole new boost to economy and the earth if we embrace it.